Traffic Panic! is a mini-game created by Billy Anderson within the video-game LittleBigPlanet 2 published on November 5, 2014. On the 21st of November 2014 it was added to the official Team Pick playlist by the community manager of the video game.

On the 28th of December 2014, it was officially announced by Billy Anderson (via a level on LittleBigPlanet 2) that a sequel to Traffic Panic! was in development[1]. Traffic Panic 2: Road Rage! would be published on the 4th of November 2015, the anniversary of the original.

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Progress of the level originally started in July of 2014. Not long after, it was published as a locked level, only accessible via the T-Games Lockbox. The code to access the beta was given away in forum posts on LittleBigPlanetarium, LBPCentral, LittleBigForum, LittleBigNetwork, Sackinima, on T-Games' Twitter, and some select friends[2][3][4][5][6][7].

The level was worked on for several weeks in this state, gradually improving, taking community feedback and gaining positive reviews from the beta testers. Anderson became inactive from LittleBigPlanet 2 however, and eventually considered Traffic Panic! officially shelved and, as a result, 'in the vault' - likely to never be published. The locked level still remained online and accessible via the T-Games Lockbox, however.

On the 4th of November, 5 months after work on Traffic Panic! originally started, Anderson decided he wanted to publish a level as a 'farewell' to LittleBigPlanet 2. He decided to take Traffic Panic 'out of the vault' before making minor improvements to visuals, and deciding to remove the beta and publish the final product.

Originally, more maps were intended to be playable. However, due to thermometer issues, this idea was scrapped and a simple extension was added to the game which activates once the player reaches 7,500 points. The sequel, Traffic Panic 2: Road Rage! introduces more maps.

During development stages, a model for a bus was added. It was later removed from game-play as it looked out-of-place with the rest of the level[8]. The model for the bus is still contained within the level, but can only be accessed via development tools.

Originally, players 2, 3 and 4 would be able to trigger environmental events that would not affect game-play. Due to thermometer issues, these features were removed. A multi-player mode was also considered, but was scrapped for the same reason. Multiplayer was attempted yet again in Traffic Panic 2: Road Rage!, however it was scrapped again for the same reason. On February 7 2017 Traffic Panic: Multiplayer Mania! was released, exclusively for multiplayer gameplay.

Originally, as the day/night cycle cycled through to night time, an orange glow resembling that of streetlights faded on, and later faded off when the cycle returned to day. The lights still remain in the level, however the feature was unused as it became difficult to focus on the cars. In the re-mastered version of the Traffic Panic! map in Traffic Panic 2: Road Rage! titled 'Back To The Past', these street lights are activated.

A concept for pedestrians that would walk along the pavements was attempted during development. Several techniques involving sackbots, controllinators and sticker panel were tested until the concept was eventually ditched due to an inability make the pedestrians look like they were actually walking.

One particular pedestrian was intended to be Protag from Chunky104's upcoming LittleBigPlanet 3 series.